Journal Club Meeting May 26, 2015

Recently a federal advisory group released a draft version of its National Pain Strategy (see attached), which seeks to redefine the way pain is perceived and treated in the U.S. The strategy ultimately derives from a mandate in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which asked the Department of Health and Human Services to “increase the recognition of pain as a significant public health problem. It’s not just another report that says we have lots of people in pain, let’s throw services at them. It’s a call to make sure that what we do with pain is based in evidence and based on the biopsychosocial model, which consensus says is the right approach.

The report was written by the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), which is comprised of representation from the FDA, the NIH, the CDC, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. “It’s not meant to dive into the weeds and recommend specific therapies,” strategy co-chair Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, of Stanford, told MedPage Today. “It’s meant to offer recommendations on how we can change the way we care for patients and incentivize that treatment. It’s going to be up to all of us to advocate — legislators, insurance companies, patient advocacy groups, medical associations — to enact these goals,” Mackey said.

As a follow up to this report the Consumer Pain Advocacy Task Force has requested that the Department of Health and Human Services develop a federal oversight body to assist with the implementation of the National Pain Strategy (see attached). The creation and implementation of a national pain strategy raises many interesting questions that we will address at out next Journal Club.

Please circulate to those you think might be interested in this topic!!